One of the hardest things to do in portraiture is to catch the essence of a person. Features are bad enough, but to actually catch personality is the trick that everyone who ever painted a portrait is wanting to do. I have been very fortunate in my life to know people of all ages, and…

On a roll after painting Theresa yesterday, I painted another face. I was fortunate to have gotten the reference photo, taken in natural light, which is the most important consideration for a painted portrait. The smile is one of the most ubiquitous facial poses we see, but it is the hardest to paint. Smiles are…

Needing to get back to painting some portraits, I picked some of my favorite people to paint. When I start a portrait, it’s always scary because I don’t know it it’s going to turn out ok or not. I usually draw my subject more than once, to get to know the lines in their face.…

Once again I return to this method of painting a face. This is a portrait of my heart side, a man I recently became reacquainted with. This painting method is incredibly useful for learning a face. It helps me see midtones and shadow, and keeps me from painting with the left side of my brain.…

Every year for 4 years I have participated in a portrait swap via Wetcanvas.com’s portrait forum. This year I got a guy in Australia who had never painted a portrait before. I really liked his face. It looked like he lived through a lot, and even though he was smiling, he looked a little sad.